San Francisco Bulletin: January 8, 1863

Once it had broken ground, the Central Pacific Railroad began the

long, difficult construction process. The workers had to create a

grade, or a foundation, for the track using shovels, wheelbarrows,

picks, scrapers, and their own two hands1. Behind them came the track

layers who had to lug and lay the wooden ties and 700 pound rails,

finishing the process by driving in the spikes. Each mile of track

required the Central Pacific Railroad to lay 400 rails and up to

2,640 ties2. That is quite a load of supplies!

Though California was plentiful in wood for ties, the Central Pacific

Railroad relied heavily on the East to provide it with building

materials. This process was both costly and time-consuming. Without

a transcontinental railroad already in existence, the most efficient

route to ship materials from East to West was around Cape Horn at the

tip of South America. After arriving at San Francisco, they took a

land route to Sacramento, then rode the train to the end of the

tracks3. In addition to shipping costs, prices spiked due to the

Civil War and the Congressional decree that all materials for the

railroad must be made in the United States4.

Increasing Supply Prices Product 1860-1863 1864-1867 1868-1869

Iron Rails (per ton) $41.75 $76.87 $91.70

Spikes (per pound) 2.5¢ 6.5¢ Blasting Powder (per keg) $2.50 $15.00 Shipping (per ton) $17.50 $51.97 Locomotives $13,688 $35,376

Figures from Ambrose, Stephen A. Nothing Like It in the World. Simon and Schuster: New York, 2000. (pp. 102,117,147,301)

As workers on the Central Pacific Railroad, you have now laid 54

miles of track to Illinoistown5. It’s been 2 years and 8 months since

the ground-breaking ceremony and 2 months since the Central Pacific

reached Clipper Gap, a mere 11 miles away. Needless to say, the

progress was not very impressive to the rest of the country6. While

here, Governor Stanford invites the Speaker of the House, Schuyler

Colfax, to see the end of the track. He then renamed this town Colfax

in honor of the politician7.

By this time, the Big Four were worried about their labor shortage.

White men proved to be unreliable workers who would work temporarily,

but leave this low-paying job once they reached mines. Despite some

initial resistance, the willing Chinese proved to be the answer to

this problem.

San Francisco Bulletin:

February 19, 1867

Today begins the procession from Cisco! Up the mountain come the

trains with all the supplies we need to begin laying track through

the Sierra Nevada8. It was no easy task getting to this point.

Thousands of Chinese workers began last fall, blasting through the

solid granite mountains. Usually, they managed to make between six

and twelve inches of progress each day. Their task was to create

thirteen tunnels that would allow the railroad to run through the

mountains. The biggest, toughest challenge was Number 6, the Summit

Tunnel, which would be 1,659 feet long when completed9. This would be

the last tunnel completed, and that would not happen until September

1867.

“In mid-October[1865], when the end of the track and supply base were at

Colfax, Chief Engineer Montague started the Chinese working in shifts—eight

hours per day, three shifts through the twenty-four hours—at each end of the

formidable summit. There was only room for gangs of three men. One would

hold the rock drill against the granite while the other two would swing

eighteen-pound sledgehammers to hit the back end of the drill.

Of all the backbreaking labor that went into the building of the CP and

the UP, of all the dangers inherent in the work, this was the worst. The drills

lost their edge to the granite and had to be replaced frequently. The CP soon

learned to order its drills in hundred-ton lots. The man swinging the hammer

had to have muscles like steel. When a hole was at last big enough for the black

powder, the crew would fill it, set a fuse, yell as loud as they could while

running out of the range of the blast, and hope. Sometimes the fuse worked,

sometimes it didn’t." (Ambrose, 160)

Nitroglycerin was used as an explosive to blast through the granite of the Sierra

Nevada in 1867. It had both positive and negative effects. Read these facts and

determine if each is a pro or a con of using nitroglycerin. Think about it…there is not

necessarily a correct answer to some. When finished, decide whether using

nitroglycerin was worth it.

Pro Con

____ Brand new invention refined by Alfred Nobel in 1860s ____

____ Cost 75 cents per pound ____

____ Eight times as powerful as the same weight of black ____

powder

____ Numerous accidents caused “many an honest John [to go] ____

to China feet first.”

____ Progress when using nitroglycerin jumped from an average of ____

2.5 feet per day to 4.4 feet per day.

____ Hired a chemist to create the mixture on site ____

____ Price of black powder had risen from $2.50 per keg to $15 per keg ____

____ Thirteen times more destructive than black powder ____

____ When money was an issue, CP was using up to 500 kegs ____

each day to blast through the Sierra Nevada.

____ “After a number of charges had been set off simultaneously, ____

a Chinese worker hit a charge of nitro that hadn’t exploded with

his pick. It exploded and killed him and the others working near

that spot.”

WORTH IT (Circle one) NOT WORTH IT

Telegram from Charles Crocker to Collis Huntington:

The track is connected across the mountains. We have one-hundred

and sixty-seven continuous miles lain.

Today, all gaps in the Central Pacific Railroad from Cisco to Truckee

are complete10. We have officially conquered the Sierra Nevada and did

what many believed impossible. Due to the terrible winter of 1866-

1867, it almost was.

Robert L. Fulton shared his experiences as a train dispatcher for the

Central Pacific Railroad who oversaw the work done in the Sierra

Nevada. Here is his account of the winter of 1866.

“In the fall of 1866 the snow was very heavy, inquiries convinced the management that

the road could not be kept open by any ordinary means. The Sierra Nevada mountains are in a

belt that receives one of the heaviest snowfalls on the globe, seventy feet and even more

having been known. It was decided to build sheds over the track in exposed places and in the

summer of 1867 Arthur Brown planned a system nearly forty miles long. Sawed lumber could

not be had in sufficient quantities, so round and hewn timbers were used, the whole work

costing two million dollars. Brown was a genius in his line.”

“Hardly had the sheds been built before fires broke out, inflicting heavy losses. The

long open galleries acted like chimneys, producing a draft of such tremendous force that the

flames leaped forward with race horse speed. It became necessary to hold fire trains, stationed

one at each end and one at Summit station.” 11

Arthur Brown, the Superintendent of Buildings and Bridges, commented:

“Although every known appliance was used to keep the road clear from snow that winter,

including the largest and best snow-plows then known, it was found impossible to keep it

open over half the time and that mostly by means of men and shovels, which required and

army of men on hand all the time at great expense.”12

Today, we laid 10 miles of track in a single

day! What a record we’ve set! Celebrate with a

piece of candy.

Chicago Tribune: December 5, 1863

Today is the groundbreaking ceremony for the Union Pacific Railroad!

We are gathered on the banks of the Missouri River to celebrate the

making of history.

UNFORTUNATELY… a shortage of money and investors caused a halt to the

project. The revival of the Union Pacific will not occur until the

end of the Civil War in 1865 when supplies, investors, and labor

became readily available.

The workers come from many walks of life. There are many Irish, but

others come from all over the eastern United States. The end of the

war left thousands of soldiers unemployed, so they keep flocking to

the Union Pacific Railroad. Even some newly freed African Americans

have joined the cause13. Despite their immense differences, the men

worked well together.

Lowell Daily Citizen and News:

August 17, 1868

We have reached the 100th Meridian, which is 247 miles from Omaha, and

Doc (Thomas) Durant has decided to make this event quite an ordeal.

He invited many potential investors and supporters to stay on the

site to be entertained for three full days14. Have a piece of candy to

celebrate.

It was not easy getting here. Supplies are not easy to come by while

we are this far west. They either come up the Missouri, which is only

navigable about three months of the year, or they come west by means

of existing railroads. However, the closest supply drop on the river

is St. Louis, and the supplies then need to travel 300 miles by

steamboat to reach Omaha. By train, the supplies reach within 100

miles of the Missouri River, but need to travel by wagon and ferry to

actually reach Omaha. In other words, supplying the materials for the

railroad is no easy task.

Unlike California, Nebraska lacks good wood to make ties. We either

have to ship in hardwood or make use of the soft, thin, wet

cottonwood. The directors were forced to settle for the latter

because shipping would cost far too much. To deal with the situation,

they brought over

Features:

100 Feet X 500 Feet,

Cylindrical Shape

Drains water from cottonwood

Adds zinc solution

Heats and dries wood

Costs only 16 cents per tie

Manufacturer not responsible if for short

lifespan of ties. Cottonwood is not fit for

railroads, and should be avoided if at all

possible.

We have arrived at North Platte, where the Platte River splits to form the

North and South Platte Rivers. With the winter weather, the track has halted

here, and we must wait for warmer weather before we can begin laying more

track. Luckily, we have plenty to do here.

Some smart folks from Chicago figured that they may as well capitalize on

the building of the Pacific Railroad just like its investors planned to do.

These “businessmen” took a different approach, however. They set up tents in

towns wherever the workers were staying and ran dance halls, taverns,

gambling dens, brothels, and other small businesses. Once the track

progressed and the workers moved to a new town, the tents came down and

followed the crowd. These towns were later coined “Hell on Wheels.”15

Here are some accounts of those who experienced Hell on Wheels:

At night new aspects are presented in this

city of premature growth. Watch-fires

gleam over the sea-like expanse of ground

outside the city, while inside soldiers,

herdsmen, teamsters, women, railroad men

are dancing, singing or gambling. I verily

believe that there are men who would

murder a fellow creature for five dollars.

Nay, there are men who have already done

it, and who stalk abroad in daylight

unwhipped of justice. Not a day passes but a

dead body is found somewhere in the

vicinity with pockets rifled of the contents.

~Henry M. Stanley (Julesburg) August 1867

Hell on Wheels was a village of a few variety

stores and shops, and many grog-shops; by

day disgusting, by night dangerous; almost

everybody is dirty, many filthy, and with the

marks of lowest vice; averaging a murder a

day; gambling and drinking, hurdy-gurdy

dancing and the vilest of sexual commerce the

chief business and pastime of the hours.

~Samuel Bowles, Editor of Springfield Republican

Samuel B. Reed, UP Engineer, to his wife (July 30, 1867)

Julesberg continues to grow with magic rapidity, vice

and crime stalk unblushingly in the mid-day sun. You

know that I never keep from you any mean thing I do

and now I am ready to confess to you what I have done

since my return from Chicago; and let me say by way of

apology, that it is the first offense of the kind I have

knowingly committed…

General Auger and staff returned here last

Friday evening and nothing would do but they must see

the town by gas light…The first place we visited was a

dance house, where a fresh importation of strumpets

had been received. The hall was crowded with bad men

and lewd women. Such profanity, vulgarity, and

indecency as was heard and seen there would disgust a

more hardened person than I.

The next place visited was a gambling hell

where all games of chance were being played. Men

excited with drink and play were recklessly staking their

last dollar on the turn of a card or the throw of a dice.

Women were cajoling and coaxing the tipsy men to

stake their money on various games; and pockets were

shrewdly picked by the fallen women of the more sober

of the crowd. We soon tired of this place and started

forth for new dens of vice and crime and visited several

similar to those already described.

At last about 10 p.m. we visited the theater...

From here I left the party and retired to my tent fully

satisfied with my first visit to such places.

Today, the Dale Creek Bridge that lies just past Sherman is

complete16. Though we have successfully built throughout Nebraska and

part of Wyoming, we have had our share of trouble with the Indians.

Unfortunately, we expect more to come. While weather and money

shortages were obstacles, the Indians are the real threat to the

completion of this railroad.

Here’s a look at both sides of the coin:

Despite the years it took to build up to and through the Sierra

Nevada, the Central Pacific makes it to Promontory Summit first!

Travelers from East and West come to experience the driving of the

final spike, which is to take place on May 8. Unfortunately, trains

get delayed, and Durant gets kidnapped by workers looking for back-

pay. Therefore, the ceremony gets rescheduled for May 10.

Finally, the day is here; the day anticipated by Americans for six

years. The ceremony to drive the Golden Spike will begin at noon.

Telegraphy offices around the country await this monumental moment.

At Ogden, telegraphers give constant updates.

Ogden: TO EVERYBODY. KEEP QUIET. WHEN THE LAST SPIKE IS DRIVEN AT

PROMONTORY POINT, WE WILL SAY “DONE!” DON’T BREAK THE CIRCUIT. BUT

WATCH FOR THE SIGNALS OF THE BLOW OF THE HAMMER.

Ogden: ALMOST READY. HATS OFF. PRAYER IS BEING OFFERED.

Ogden: ALL READY NOW; THE SPIKE WILL SOON BE DRIVEN.THE SIGNAL WILL

BE THREE DOTS FOR THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE BLOWS.

Thomas Durant takes the first swing and taps the spike. Then, Leland

Stanford takes the final swing. He misses and hits the rail, but

this is good enough for the telegraphers.

Ogden: “DONE!”17

The railroad was far from perfect. It was far from being completely

finished. Still, it was the First Transcontinental Railroad.

While you’re here, find a worker from the other railroad and discuss

your experiences. Each of you must write a reflection paper that

compares and contrasts the obstacles faced by the two railroads.

Also, you must explain why the First Transcontinental Railroad was so

significant to United States History.

Endnotes

1 Ambrose, Stephen E. Nothing Like It in the World. Simon and Schuster: New York, 2000. (p. 136-139).

2 Cooper-Winter, Rebecca. Eastward to Promontory. 30 July 2007. CPRR.org. 12 Oct. 2008.

http://cprr.org/Museum/Galloway_Judah_ASCE/index.html#006. 3 Ibid, online.

4 Ambrose, 147.

5 Cooper-Winter, online.

6 Sabin, Edwin L. Building the Pacific Railway. J.B. Lippincott Company: Philadelphia, 1919. (p.107)

7 Ambrose, 155-159.

8 Ibid, 203.

9 Ibid, 160.

10 Ambrose, 306

11 Fulton, Robert L. Epic of the Overland. N.A. Kovach: Los Angeles, 1954. (p. 34-35)

12 Mayer, Lynne Rhodes and Kenneth E. Vose. Makin’ Tracks. Praeger Publishers: New York, 1975. (p. 44)

13 Ambrose, 176-177.

14 Ibid, 185-187.

15 Ibid, 217, 238.

16 Combs, Barry B. Westward to Promontory. Promontory Press: New York, 1969. (p.24)

16 Ambrose, 360-366.

Additional Citations January 8, 1863 “By Magnetic Bulletin: Despatch to the Bulletin.” San Francisco Bulletin.. 8 Jan. 1863 (p.3) September 10, 1865 “Chinese Labor on the Pacific Railroad.” San Francisco Bulletin. 19 Feb. 1867 (p.1) November 24, 1866 (quotation)

Ambrose, 160.

Nitroglycerin Facts

Ambrose, 201-202,235-236

April 18, 1869 (picture)

Mayer, 166

December 2, 1863

“Union Pacific Railway”. Chicago Tribune. 5 Dec. 1863. (p. 2)

Bell, W.A. “The Character of the Union Pacific Railroad.” Lowell Daily Citizen and News. 17 Aug. 1968. (p.2)

October 6, 1866

Ambrose 139-140.

Picture: Ambrose, pictures.

Winter 1866-67

Ambrose, 219.

Mayer, 102.

April 23, 1868

“Grand Torchlight Procession and Illumination on Account of the Pacific Railroad Act.” San Francisco Bulletin. 11 July 1862

(p.3)

Mayer, 98.

Station Questions

Pictures

Tea Carrier: Mayer, 32

Overlooking Native American: Ambrose, pictures.

Map of First Transcontinental Railroad: Ambrose, cover

Bibliography

Ambrose, Stephen E. Nothing Like It in the World. Simon and Schuster: New York, 2000. (p. 136-139).

Bell, W.A. “The Character of the Union Pacific Railroad.” Lowell Daily Citizen and News. 17 Aug. 1968.

(p.2)

“By Magnetic Bulletin: Despatch to the Bulletin.” San Francisco Bulletin.. 8 Jan. 1863 (p.3)

“Chinese Labor on the Pacific Railroad.” San Francisco Bulletin. 19 Feb. 1867 (p.1)

Combs, Barry B. Westward to Promontory. Promontory Press: New York, 1969. (p.24)

Cooper-Winter, Rebecca. Eastward to Promontory. 30 July 2007. CPRR.org. 12 Oct. 2008.

http://cprr.org/Museum/Galloway_Judah_ASCE/index.html#006.

Fulton, Robert L. Epic of the Overland. N.A. Kovach: Los Angeles, 1954. (p. 34-35)

“Grand Torchlight Procession and Illumination on Account of the Pacific Railroad Act.” San Francisco

Bulletin. 11 July 1862 (p.3)

Mayer, Lynne Rhodes and Kenneth E. Vose. Makin’ Tracks. Praeger Publishers: New York, 1975. (p. 44)

Sabin, Edwin L. Building the Pacific Railway. J.B. Lippincott Company: Philadelphia, 1919. (p.107)

“Union Pacific Railway”. Chicago Tribune. 5 Dec. 1863. (p. 2)